Jingle Bell Run/Walk honoree Cole Peaden, foreground, stands with his friends and family, from left, Lauren Bolton, Mary Katherine Lees, Grant Peaden, Megan Bolton, Aaron Edge, Grayson Holzworth and Deion McLeod. They are all running as part of Team Cole. Cole Peaden, a Pace High School sophomore, suffers from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

Written by

Rhema Thompson
| rthompson3@pnj.com

Before taking the field for the Patriots each day of the football season, Cole Peaden glanced up at a picture that hangs in the Pace High locker room.

"It's just a little kid, maybe 4 or 5, running with these two prosthetic legs, and below it says 'What's your excuse?' " he said. "That's kind of what motivates me."

But Cole, a 15-year-old sophomore, does not live a life without its own hurdles. In fact, one might say pain has become a way of life for him. Just before the age of 4, he was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. ...